The current state of the art provides a wide variety of antimicrobial agents which may be used for any number of purposes. While certain antimicrobial agents such as iodine based agents or quaternary surfactants have a high degree of antimicrobial efficacy, these agents can leave a residue which may be highly undesirable and in fact contaminating of many products or substances which may subsequently come in contact with the treated surface. Accordingly, the treated surface must often be cleansed of the antimicrobial agent by a post-treatment process prior to further use.
For example, hard surface cleaners in food processing environments, dairy compositions such as teat dips, food preparation dips such as those used for cleaning chicken carcasses as well as the human topical cleansers are all compositions which may require an effective antimicrobial agent which does not leave a contaminating residue on the surface of application. Contamination in the context refers to constituent or element resulting from the antimicrobial treatment which is undesirable on the cleaned surface or final product.
For example, present dairy processes generally use a premilking dipping of the dairy cow's udder to reduce environmental mastitis infections. While the practice of premilking dipping produces benefits in the reduction of infections, this process brings about additional, time consuming steps. Normally the process of premilking dipping requires that the cow's udder be dipped in the teat dip, and then wiped down. If the udder is not dried, the teat dip may remain on the udder and, in turn, may form a residue. Once milking is initiated this residue may contaminate the milking machine, and even the finished milk product.
Such contaminants are largely undesirable as most premilking teat dips comprise antimicrobial elements such as iodine, chlorohexidene, chlorine, or quaternary cationic surfactants. Federal regulations prohibit the sale of milk containing chlorohexidene or quaternary surfactant additives at any detectable level. Thus contamination may be avoided only by carefully wiping the udder down once the premilking dip is completed, prior to the actual milking processes.
Presently disclosed antimicrobial compositions provide a variety of constituents and characteristics. For instance, Bowing et al, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,051,058 and 4,051,054 disclose antimicrobial compositions generally containing oxidizing compounds including peracetic or perpropionic acid. The disclosure of af Edenstam et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,935 includes a germicidal skin ointment also containing hydrogen peroxide. Ekman et al disclosed in European Patent Application No. 250,539 an antimicrobial teat dip generally comprising hydrogen peroxide along with beta crystals of monoglyceride lipids.
However, the present state of the art has not provided a peroxide-acid composition having a durable and high antimicrobial efficacy when safely used in a topical application on mammalian skin. Moreover, the present state of the art has failed to provide an antimicrobial composition for topical application to prevent environmental mastitis infections which will avoid problems with leaving contaminants and residues within the finished milk product.